From Etch A Sketch to Elmo: Past Christmas toy crazes

1963: Easy-Bake Oven

Beneath the Christmas tree is a mountain of gifts: wrapped-up dolls, board games, stuffed animals and action figures that parents worked hard to get by saving up, standing in line and even fighting for the perfect toy.

In North America, parents spend $14 billion on Christmas presents each year, according to Jim Silver, an industry analyst who is editor-in-chief of Timetoplaymag.com, a website reviewing the latest toys.

During the holiday season, it’s adults who are throwing fits -- and punches -- in the toy stores as they hunt for the hot toy of the season, explains Silver, who says he’s seen the tantrums and meltdowns in his 27 years of following toy trends.

Silver, and Patti Taggart, Canadian Toy Testing Council member and Neighbourhood Toy Stores of Canada president, take a walk down memory lane as they chronicle the top toys that had kids -- and their parents -- in a Christmas frenzy.

1961: Before the iPad, there was a red-framed drawing tablet called Etch A Sketch. Taggart, owner of Ottawa-based Tag Along Toys, called it a “huge hit” that both parents and kids loved.

The classic Etch A Sketch and its upgraded successors can still be found in toy stores today.

1963: Taggart said the Easy-Bake Oven also caused hysteria and, like Etch A Sketch, managed to transcend time as new models of the portable oven were launched years and decades later.

The training oven came with cake mix, which only needed water to create batter, and small pans that formed miniature cakes. That year, little girls across the country were feeding family members cakes cooked by heat from a light bulb.

Parents still ask Taggart about twice a week if she carries Easy-Bake ovens.

1980: Rubik’s Cubes could be found in children’s bedrooms around the world and is remembered as one of the best-selling toys of all time. More than 300 million units have been sold globally.

1985: Girls traded in their Barbies, signed adoption papers and took home $600 million worth of Cabbage Patch Kids, nicknamed the dolls of the decade. "$600 million in the 1980s is an awful lot. I mean $600 million today is an awful lot but back then, that’s huge," Silver said.

The following year, Canadian newspapers reported the dolls were the largest-selling product line in the history of the toy industry. Kids had to have one and parents obliged. In department stores across North America, teeth were knocked out and fights ensued.

"(Adults) fought over Cabbage Patch Kids in the aisles. I remember the fights that were for Cabbage Patch. There were people grabbing boxes and they’d have tug of wars, I saw them firsthand," Silver remembered.

1990: Nintendo Game Boy, the portable electronic gaming system, sold millions of units upon its release and led to the Gameboy Colour eight years later. Collectively, the handheld devices sold more than 100 million units around the world.

"You had all the gaming systems, but nothing like that. It was video games on the go for children," Silver said of the craze.

That year, Reuters reported that Toys “R” Us sales jumped nearly 23 per cent to $2 billion US during the eight-week Christmas season, largely because of Nintendo video game sales.

1993: The television series Power Rangers, which was about a group of teenagers who transformed into superheroes, had kids hypnotized. They turned to their parents to buy them the "mighty morphin’" action figures, t-shirts, video games and other merchandise.

"Nobody planned on it. They shipped $9 million worth of Power Rangers toys and ended up making more, selling between $13 and $15 million," Silver said. By Christmas 2004, the Power Rangers sold more than $600 million of products.

1996: Consumers should remember a friendly red muppet from Sesame Street that vibrated and laughed hysterically before declaring, "That tickles." More than a million giggling Tickle Me Elmo dolls were sold at $35 a piece and, when they were gone, stampedes of helpless parents turned to eBay auctions and scalpers who were asking for hundreds of dollars for the toy, Silver said.

1998: Some Canadians didn’t know what a Furby was, but others were willing to pay more than 10 times its $35 original price to get their hands one one. Desperate parents looking for the furry, big-eyed creature that could blink, sing and mumble -- and which were flying off toy store shelves -- returned to eBay. The toy commanded $500 or more in newspapers want ads.

"It was absolutely insane. People walking into the toy store looking for the Furby aisle. It was just empty. People were paying ransom fees for them," Silver said.

"I’d see meltdowns of parents. What do you mean there are no Furbies? When are they coming in? You’d often think the parents are the child."

2000: Gamers lined up outside stores across North America to buy PlayStation 2, which also operates as a DVD player. EBay and newspaper classifieds across the country were selling the $450 machines for $750 to $1,750.

There were even reports of riots on its launch date when crowds of people got angry and several men were arrested after the gaming consoles sold out at Walmart. Most Canadians had to rely on resellers to get to the perfect Christmas gift for 2000.

2006: Nintendo Wii’s November launch vaulted the $280 gaming console with a wireless controller to the top of kids’ Christmas lists.

"The years the Wii and PlayStations were introduced, they just dominated the holiday season," Silver said, noting the shift from traditional toys to tech gadgets in the new millennium.

By mid-December, the season’s top toy was sold out in most stores.

2009: Last Christmas, children wanted hamsters -- more than $80 million worth of battery-operated Zhu Zhu Pets hamsters.

Silver is convinced that if there was more supply, consumers would have spent $300 million on the rodents that mumble, squeak and move around.

They sold out weeks before Christmas approached in 2009. the Victoria Times Colonist reported that people were paying up to $50 or more on eBay for the $8 toy.

Its manufacturers are about to launch its Princess and Babies lines, which means "phenomenon is just beginning," the toy’s website, Zhuniverse.com, said.

Both Taggart and Silver believe the craze will have a cult following again this year.

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